Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An eager or strong desire to achieve something, such as fame or power.
  • noun The object or goal desired.
  • noun Desire for exertion or activity; energy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; aspire to; be ambitious of.
  • noun The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office or other object of desire; a canvassing.
  • noun An eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other men: often used in a good sense: as, ambition to be good.
  • noun Hence The object of ambitious desire.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.
  • noun obsolete The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.
  • noun An eager, and sometimes an inordinate, desire for preferment, honor, superiority, power, or the attainment of something.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable, countable Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people.
  • noun countable An object of an ardent desire.
  • noun A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.
  • noun uncountable A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.
  • verb To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb have as one's ambition
  • noun a cherished desire
  • noun a strong drive for success

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English ambicioun, excessive desire for honor, power, or wealth, from Old French ambition, from Latin ambitiō, ambitiōn-, from ambitus, past participle of ambīre, to go around (for votes); see ambient.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ambicion, from Old French ambition, from Latin ambitio ("ambition, a striving for favor, literally 'a going around', especially of candidates for office in Rome soliciting votes"), from ambiō ("I go around, solicit votes"). See ambient, issue.

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Examples

  • The main ambition is to lose some weight and get myself into better shape, which basically means covering some ground again and this time applying that old willpower to maintaining the state.

    Sometimes I wake up and wonder what world this is tru2myart 2008

  • Whoever thinks we are a one issue party i am afraid they are wrong, i must assume this person has never heard of a 'Manifesto' yes this describes what the party wants to achieve, i take it the EDP's manifesto has not been read by this person, yes the main ambition is parity for England as was plaid cymru's for Wales and the Scottish National party for Scotland.

    Should England Have its Own Parliament? 2006

  • Our main ambition is to raise as many children as we can afford and give them all the love we have in us.

    Spoon, Donald R. 1977

  • People often use the word ambition as a negative, but I can't see anything wrong with being driven.

    The Guardian World News 2011

  • But if your ambition is a one-party state and irreversible changes, then things are going right according to plan.

    This sums up the Democratic Congressional strategy perfectly. - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState 2009

  • In young women the erotic wishes predominate almost exclusively, for their ambition is as a rule absorbed by erotic trends.

    Attached to Reading: Mary Shelley's Psychical Reality 2008

  • Petkoff at 74 year old cannot have more than a one term ambition, and as Reagan was, is old enough to measure what real glory is e.g., leaving a functional country behind and old enough to not only know the value of delegating power, but on how to do it, on whom to delegate.

    Petkoff to throw his hat in the race 2006

  • Petkoff at 74 year old cannot have more than a one term ambition, and as Reagan was, is old enough to measure what real glory is e.g., leaving a functional country behind and old enough to not only know the value of delegating power, but on how to do it, on whom to delegate.

    04/16/2006 - 04/23/2006 2006

  • The ANC was opposed to what he described as ambition for ambition's sake or for personal gain. lso of concern was a lack of management skills among officials in government departments.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1998

  • And it is the desire to be a factor in the world, to increase the scope and consequence of one's self that is the leading ingredient in what we call ambition, and the desire for fame, and at least one ingredient in the desire for wealth.

    Human Traits and their Social Significance Irwin Edman

Comments

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  • Ehrgeiz

    An eager or strong desire to achieve something

    Ambition spurred him to success.

    May 14, 2009

  • a goal or a strong desire for success

    May 14, 2009

  • feeling that someone wants to be

    May 14, 2009

  • *a strong wish to achieve something what we want

    *a strong desire to be successful

    May 14, 2009

  • His Carmen Moralzes

    July 15, 2013